Fury in trouble with BBBoC over foul-mouthed Price rant

Harry Pratt

October 16, 2012

The British Boxing Board of Control is ready to hit Tyson Fury with a disciplinary charge following the heavyweight contender’s abusive remarks at English rival David Price.

In an interview on Channel Five last Saturday, 24-year-old Fury declared he was going to do British and Commonwealth holder Price some “serious harm” before suggesting he was in a gay relationship with light heavyweight contender Tony Bellew. Then later over the weekend, Fury, THE RING’s No. 10-rated heavyweight, used Twitter to continue his unsavoury attacks with several expletive rants about 6-foot-9 Price.

The BBBoC does not take kindly to behavior from its licensed fighters which brings the sport’s integrity and image into question and seem certain to fine Fury, whose actions are all the more bizarre given his refusal to fight Price earlier this year.

“I’m very disappointed by this and have already spoken to the chairman Charles Giles. I’m seeing him again tonight and we will discuss it again,” said BBBoC general secretary Robert Smith.

Manchester-based Fury (19-0, 14 knockouts) actually vacated his British and Commonwealth titles at the turn of the year so he did not have to face mandatory challenger Price (14-0, 12 KOs), who later won both belts and successfully defended them for the first time on Saturday night with an explosive first-round KO of Audley Harrison.

Following that romp at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, Price’s promoter Frank Maloney, made reference to Fury’s ‘stupid tweets’ while offering him just short of one million dollars to get into the ring with his man, claiming ‘it’s the fight the whole of the country wants to see’.

Price (14-0, 12 KOs) does not envisage that happening any time soon and insists Fury’s behaviour smacks of jealousy and immaturity.

“Fury is just envious. He sees that I am the one getting a lot of the attention in this country and he doesn’t like it. He is behaving like a child and embarrassing himself. It is not good for the sport of boxing. I haven’t had to deal with someone like this since I was in the school playground,” said the 29-year-old Merseysider. “We wanted to fight Fury but for some reason he doesn’t want to fight me. It looks like we will have to wait until next year.”